It is known to provide cooling to a surface by guiding a fluid flow across the surface. Sometimes it is desirable to be able to simultaneously guide a fluid flow across two surfaces to be cooled.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,231 discloses a cooling unit for a number of power semiconductors. The cooling unit is formed by a quadrangular tube to which the power semiconductors are secured at an exterior with good thermal conductivity, in an equipping region of the tube. The quadrangular tube has a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet. The quadrangular tube contains a laminarization unit disposed in a region following the coolant inlet, this region overlapping the equipping region. In a region between the laminarization unit and the coolant outlet, the quadrangular tube contains a number of turbulence-producing elements for introducing turbulence into the coolant flow. The laminarization unit may be in the form of an insert introduced into the quadrangular tube.
EP 1 795 852 discloses a cooling device for semiconductor elements. The cooling device comprises a housing having a distributor inserted in an interior part thereof. The distributor has a first side having a plurality of flow cells formed therein and a second, oppositely arranged, side having an inlet manifold and an outlet manifold formed therein. Cooling fluid supplied to the inlet manifold is distributed to the flow cells, guided across a surface to be cooled by means of the flow cells, and collected in the outlet manifold. From the outlet manifold the fluid leaves the cooling device.
The cooling units disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,231 and EP 1 795 852 are adapted to guide a flow of fluid across only one surface to be cooled.